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2015 - 3rd Quarter

Welcome to InFocus!

Brian Burnett, Vice President for Finance and CFO

Another close to a successful fiscal year with more changes and challenges ahead.

June 30 represented the end of the FY 14-15 for the University of Missouri System and its campuses and units across the state. I’d like to thank the many staff in the finance support areas across this system for their work and dedication over the past year, and for the work to date to keep our system financially and operationally sound. I would also like to give a “shout-out” to the many staff in IT and Finance who worked much of their Memorial Day weekend to accomplish the PeopleSoft 9.2 upgrade for the UM finance system. While any upgrade comes with a certain number of “hiccups,” ours were few and dealt with in short order by a dedicated team of professionals. For all involved in this effort — THANK YOU!

It has been a good and challenging year in many respects and when you spend time at the commencement ceremonies at our campuses, you see first-hand why the University of Missouri is so important to so many. We give students the opportunity to learn and grow and chart their own course for the future. We also assist world-class instructors, researchers and experts as they deliver the best thinking in their fields of study to our world. It is great to be a part of an organization so vital to the economic future of the state of Missouri, our country and in so many respects, our world.

More change…..

We have named Eric Vogelweid Interim Controller of the UM system during the past quarter. Eric was our Associate Controller and joined the UM controller’s office in 2013. Eric is a 2009 graduate of the Trulaske School of Business at MU earning both a bachelor of science in accountancy and a master of accountancy. In his time with the UM system, he has brought energy and new approaches to assisting the campuses and health system with financial management and accountability tools and analysis. Eric will report to Assistant Vice President Cuba Plain during his interim appointment. Eric takes the place of Ryan Rapp, who was appointed Chief Audit Executive for the UM system by the Board of Curators.

The Division of Internal Audit and Consulting Services continues to advance with key hires. The move to insource internal audit functions under Ryan Rapp’s leadership continues to progress well with the appointment of Stacy Wright as Director of Campus Internal Audits. Stacy joins the UM system after a distinguished 17-year career with the State of Missouri in the State Auditor’s Office and most recently, as the Director of Internal Audit with the Missouri Department of Social Services. Stacy brings a great deal of expertise and experience with managing an audit division across the state and this will greatly assist the division in building the campus audit functions on our four UM campuses. Stacy is a graduate of Columbia College. Please welcome Stacy to the UM family as she starts in our new division on July 13.

Soon, we will also announce the leadership of the health care and information technology audit groups within the division, and are actively interviewing lead and staff auditor candidates to have this division fully staffed by November, 2015. The majority of the Columbia-based staff will be located in the Old Alumni Center on the MU campus sharing office space with UM business services and risk management. The UM auditors assigned to the UMKC, UMSL and Missouri S&T campuses will be located on the campuses each serves and we are working with the campus Vice Chancellors for Finance in securing space for these staff.

We will continue to keep everyone updated on the progress of these issues and other initiatives within the Office of Finance in future editions of InFocus.

Office of the Controller

The PeopleSoft Finance/Supply Chain system was upgraded to version 9.2 over the Memorial Day weekend and is now available to use. The URLs have not changed so any bookmarks you have created should still work. If you do encounter an issue with an existing bookmark, you may need to delete and create a new bookmark. […] Read more

Compliance Corner

All of the campuses should be wrapping up their Space Surveys (Space Use Inventory). We want to take this time to thank all of those involved, including the department or college Space Inventory users who completed the surveys, the Dean’s Office Administration, Sponsored Programs Offices, and the Campus Facilities Space Planning offices. We truly appreciate […] Read more

The FY 2015 single audit has begun. KPMG has started fieldwork on three of the eight programs to be audited this year including the Student Financial Aid, Research & Development, and SAMHSA programs. Fieldwork on the remaining five programs may begin as early as late October or early November. Read more

Risk and Insurance Management

Risk and Insurance Management is expanding to better serve you. Effective June 16, Tammra Aholt joined our group as a Risk Management Consultant. She came to us from State Farm Insurance where she was employed for 15 years. Most of her tenure she worked as a property and bodily injury claim representative. She received an […] Read more

Jamie Mitchell began working for the University Hospital’s business office on June 16, 1975. She has held positions in the business office, hospital accounting and, in 2001, moved to Global Supply which is now called UM System Supply Chain. During these 40 years, her offices have been located in Lewis and Clark Hall, TD’s which […] Read more